April 2025 Media Highlights

South China Morning Post (China) - Trade war: Trump’s tariff calculations slammed by some economists - David Bieri, an associate professor at Virginia Tech's School of Public and International Affairs, contended that those upset with the formula were making a "big conceptual mistake".

​​Atlas Obscura - What Secrets Are Behind the Magic of Miniatures? - Kelly teaches at Radford and Virginia Tech, and her artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the U.S.

Adweek - FAA Allows Sinclair to Fly Drones Over People and Moving Vehicles Without a Waiver - “We have worked for years with Sinclair, helping to train their pilots, and I have always been impressed with their professionalism and commitment to safety,” said Tombo Jones, director for the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership.

National Geographic - A "viral blunbing" was observed in an American crocodile - “Over time, we realized that parthenogenesis is a fairly widespread and common phenomenon,” says , a biologist of urban evolution at Virginia Tech and lead author of a study published in 2023 in Biology Letters tasked with describing the discovery.

Interesting Engineering - New imaging breakthrough can lead to improved EV battery performance - Led by Feng Lin and Louis Madsen, professors at Virginia Tech and study authors, the team used the novel approach to explore the elusive interfaces within batteries – the tight, tricky spots buried deep inside the cell – where the electrolyte and electrodes meet and often cause performance issues.

Newsweek - Elon Musk Has Key Advantage To Deal With Donald Trump Tariffs - David Bieri, a professor of global finance at Virginia Tech, told Newsweek that Tesla has some advantages over competitors. Its domestic production gives it a chance to be a leader in the electric vehicle sector over other U.S.-based automobile manufactures. But still, it is facing a flurry of other issues on the global scale.

BBC - Is SpaceX ok? - Contributors: Dr Ella Atkins is Fred D. Durham Professor and Head of the Kevin T. Crofton Aerospace and Ocean Engineering Department at Virginia Tech in the USA. 

NPR (Originally aired on BBC) - Is SpaceX Okay? - Transcription: “SpaceX does not believe failure has happened when there is an explosion of one its vehicles during a test flight. Ella Atkins is the head of aerospace engineering at Virginia Tech.” 

Fox News - COVID 5 Years Later: Impact on Education - The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immediate and permanent impact on our education system. Sudden lockdowns across America in 2020 accelerated the adoption of  virtual classrooms. Schools that had previously experimented with the technology were suddenly required to fully embrace online learning - ready or not.   As Donna Fortune, an associate professor at the Virginia Tech School of Education, explains, "We quickly realized how much digital infrastructure was lacking. Many rural areas simply didn't have the technological resources."

CBS News - When is the next total solar eclipse in the U.S.? - "A total solar eclipse is one of the most spectacular things anyone can see in their lifetime," Virginia Tech astrophysicist Nahum Arav told CBS News.

Kiplinger - Is the Economy at Risk of a Recession Because of Tariffs? What the Experts Are Saying - “I’m watching consumer spending and job growth — especially in sectors that are sensitive to changes in the interest rate, like housing. If people start holding off big purchases, that’s a red flag. So far, the labor market has held up well, but another increase in inflation could ruin that.” – Jadrian Wooten, an economist at Virginia Tech.

Weather Channel - Joseph Vantassel on underground power lines - Vantassel discussed the pros and cons of underground power lines, specifically pertaining to different weather conditions. 

Popular Mechanics - Physicists Think They’ve Finally Seen Evidence of String Theory - At least, that’s the idea behind a new preprint paper, published on the server arXiv. Scientists from Virginia Tech, State University of New York (SUNY) and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa argue that the bombshell observations from DESI—primarily, that the dark energy is weakening over time—could provide some of the first direct observational evidence of string theory.

Live Science - Scientists claim to find 'first observational evidence supporting string theory,' which could finally reveal the nature of dark energy - In a new paper that was posted in the preprint database arXiv but has not been peer-reviewed, physicists Sunhaeng Hur, Djordje Minic, Tatsu Takeuchi (Virginia Tech), Vishnu Jejjala (University of the Witwatersrand), and Michael Kavic applied string theory to analyze space-time at the quantum level.

New Scientist - Earth's upper mantle is revealing the deepest effect of human activity - Other changes caused by humans, such as filling large reservoirs or pumping groundwater, have also caused rebound, says Manoochehr Shirzaei at Virginia Tech. But the wide range of the Aral Sea means the effects of emptying it are likely to run deeper, he says. 

MSN - An "unexpected yet very beautiful" Swiss chalet features in today's Dezeen Debate - Other stories in this week's newsletter that fired up the comments section included designer Tim Fu’s plans for a housing development in Slovenia created with AI, a redesigned map of New York's subway system and a toolkit that converts compost into paint developed by Virginia Tech designers. 

Prevention - Struggling to Talk to Your Parents About Memory Loss? Here's What to Say - “When people start losing their independence, the conversations are hard,” acknowledges Karen Roberto, Ph.D., a university distinguished professor of human development and family science at Virginia Tech and a core member of the Virginia Tech Center for Gerontology.

New York Times - How Bats Enjoy an In-Flight Beverage Service - Of the world’s approximately 1,400 bat species, “skim drinking on the wing” is the most prevalent strategy for taking a sip of water, said Rolf Müller, a mechanical engineer at Virginia Tech and an author of the study.

Wall Street Journal - Iran Has a Reason to Strike a Nuclear Deal: Its Economy Is in Trouble - “Inflation is probably the No. 1 concern of the people right now,” said Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, a professor of economics at Virginia Tech who specializes in Iran. “It’s very painful for people because there’s a psychological element of working hard, getting a wage, and then going to a store just to see it disappear,” he said. 

Yahoo News - What you should and shouldn't be doing to prepare for a possible recession, according to financial experts - Yahoo News spoke with David Bieri, associate professor of public policy at Virginia Tech, and Gene McGovern, principal of McGovern Financial Advisors, about some of the general do’s and don’ts of personal finance to keep in mind to be better prepared before a possible recession.

USA Today - As Pope Francis' funeral nears, fascination with papacy's rituals take center stage - “It grabs the attention of not just Catholics but people across the world,” says Baumgartner, professor emeritus of history at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and author of “Behind Locked Doors: A History of the Papal Elections.”

Associated Press - Trump science cuts target bird feeder research, AI literacy work and more - “I was shocked and saddened,” said Dayer, a professor at Virginia Tech’s department of fish and wildlife conservation. “We were just at the peak of being able to get our findings together and do all of our analysis. There’s a lot of feelings of grief.”